Page 46 - Branding Yourself and Your Business

42 ROBERT DRAKES

spoken language in the more and in used as the language of business,
so spending the time and money to have the website being able to be
translated into several languages might be a waste of money. More-
over, companies that are located in non-English speaking countries are
naming their brands in English. You have already seen the exam-ples
of Red Bull that comes from Austria and Diesel jeans that come from
Italy. These are just a couple of the products from non-English
speaking countries that have been given English sounding names.

The opportunity to go global is another reason to stay away
from a generic name. If you are trying to sell shoes on the Internet,
naming the site Shoes.com is akin to shooting yourself in the foot.
The word “shoes” does not mean the same thing in all languages
so non-English speaking people will have no idea what you are
selling and will not go to your site. This is way Nike is successful, if
they called their company Athletic Gear, they would not have the
success that they enjoy. Nike means the same thing to consumers
across the globe. Athletic teams across the world wear Nike gear
so when they are looking to buy some athletic equipment on the
Internet typing in the word Nike into the computer is an easy thing
to do and it is the first name that comes into consumer’s minds
when they want to purchase athletic gear.